2011 ATP World Tour Awards—Nathan’s Blog

Written by: Staff on 2nd December 2011

2011 ATP World Tour Awards—Nathan’s Blog |

By: Nathan M. Cuny

As every season reaches its close the nominees and winners of the ATP world tour awards are chosen. Both fans and players have a say in determining the winners of many awards and for the 2011 season many fan favorites were chosen as winners. The awards categories are as follows: ATP World Tour No.1; ATP World Tour No.1 Doubles Team; Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award; Comeback Player of the Year; Newcomer of the Year; Most Improved Player of the Year; Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year; Fans’ Favourite (singles); and Fans’ Favourite (Doubles).

The ATP World Tour No.1 award is based on the South African Airways ATP Ranking. The players points earned from each tournament they competed in are added up for the season’s total. The 2011 season’s winner of the ATP World Tour No.1 award is, drum roll please…Novak Djokovic. The ATP World Tour No.1 Doubles Team follows in suit with the singles award going to the No.1 doubles team of, doot dada doo…Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan.

The Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship award was given for the seventh time to Roger Federer. His winning streak for the award was broken in 2010 by Nadal who was a nominee in the category for 2011 alongside Djokovic and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. Fellow tennis players vote for the award’s winner. It seems Federer is a favorite even with his own competition.

Fellow tennis players chose Juan Martin del Potro as this year’s recipient for the Comeback Player of the Year award. The award goes to the player who re-establishes himself as one of the top players on the ATP World Tour by overcoming serious injury. Del Potro fell to a low of No.485 in February but pulled himself to No.11 by November. The 2011 nominees were: Juan Martin del Potro, Gilles Muller, Gilles Simon, and Dmitry Tursunov.

The Newcomer of the Year award goes to the player who, based on his ranking move in 2011 has made the biggest impact on the ATP world tour. The winner is chosen by fellow players, and this year’s Newcomer of the Year award winner is Milos Raonic. At 20 years old he is the first Canadian to claim a tour level title in 16 years. Milos jumped from No. 156 to No.31 compiling a match record of 31-19 during his first full season.

ATP tennis players voted Alex Bogomolov Jr. as the 2011 choice for the Most Improved Player of the Year award. Bogomolov rose from his 2010 year end position as No.166 to his career high of No.31 in November finishing the season with a 27-21 match record. His biggest career win came this season when he defeated No.5 Andy Murray in Miami.

Rafael Nadal was chosen by ATP as the winner of the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year award. The award goes to the person who has made outstanding humanitarian contributions. Nadal joined former South African President Nelson Mandela, Arthur Ashe, Carlos Moya, and Roger Federer as winners of the award. Nadal gained the award through his involvement with the Rafa Nadal Foundation. The foundation offers educational programs for socially disadvantaged youth using sports as a tool for personal and social integration.

Tennis fans voted Roger Federer as the No.1 Fans’ Favourite (singles) award winner for the ninth straight year. Djokovic came in second while Nadal came in third as the Fans’ Favourite. Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan won Fans’ Favourite (Doubles) for the seventh straight time. The teams of Mahesh Bhupathi/Leander Paes and Michael Llodra/Nenad Zimonjic were just behind the Bryan twins as possible Fans’ Favourite winners. This sums up the ATP World Tour Award winners for the 2011 season. If you didn’t see any of your favorites as winners, well better luck next year.

Topics: ATP World Tour Awards